1
00:00:05,243 --> 00:00:08,424
What I normally study is methane in the ocean.

2
00:00:08,424 --> 00:00:16,464
The Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010 was, in a 
sense, a natural laboratory for us.

3
00:00:16,464 --> 00:00:25,229
It provided a situation that gave us the ability to study a system 
that we would never have been given funding to study.

4
00:00:25,229 --> 00:00:31,547
What happens when a large release of methane is emitted to the 
ocean? Where does it go? What is its ultimate fate?

5
00:00:31,547 --> 00:00:41,483
We were able to measure the total mass of hydrocarbons, oil and gas, that was respired in 
the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and how that changed with time.

6
00:00:41,483 --> 00:00:48,082
And that gives us the estimate of the 
rates of bulk oil and gas biodegradation.

7
00:00:48,082 --> 00:00:58,258
Our research indicates that approximately 200,000 tons of oil and gas 
hydrocarbons have been removed by microorganisms by September 2010.

8
00:00:58,258 --> 00:01:03,871
What we saw was that 2-3 months after the 
beginning of this disaster in 2010,

9
00:01:03,871 --> 00:01:12,171
those deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico started to see a sharp 
increase in the rates of total oil and gas consumption.

10
00:01:12,171 --> 00:01:21,963
By 4 months into the disaster, those rates had passed their peak and were 
already starting to decline, as they became oil and gas limited.

11
00:01:21,963 --> 00:01:27,316
As they basically ate themselves out of house and home 
in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

12
00:01:27,316 --> 00:01:34,145
Quantifying the rates of consumptions by microorganisms gives us some of the fundamental knowledge

13
00:01:34,145 --> 00:01:42,023
that’s able to translate what we’ve learned from this disaster, 
potentially then to other disasters that might occur –

14
00:01:42,023 --> 00:01:45,522
to other oil spills at other areas of the planet.

15
00:01:45,522 --> 00:01:53,941
We’re looking at some of the fundamental capacities of these microorganisms 
to consume released oil and released natural gas.

16
00:01:53,941 --> 00:01:59,807
And this gives us an idea of the amount 
of time that it would take,

17
00:01:59,807 --> 00:02:06,559
in certain areas of the world’s ocean, to remove any released hydrocarbons.

18
00:02:06,559 --> 00:02:13,714
Interestingly enough, we noticed that when our rates of consumption increased most dramatically,

19
00:02:13,714 --> 00:02:20,257
it’s correlated with the time periods where they’re most 
aggressively injecting dispersant at the well head.

20
00:02:20,257 --> 00:02:30,767
Now while there is much more research to be done to quantify the 
effectiveness and appropriateness of using dispersants in a natural ecosystem,

21
00:02:30,767 --> 00:02:38,671
at least to a first approximation, our results indicate that there is a correlation

22
00:02:38,671 --> 00:02:47,485
between the rates of biodegradation of chemicals, of oil and gas in the deep 
waters of the Gulf of Mexico, with the addition of dispersants.

23
00:02:47,485 --> 99:59:59,999
A production of the University of Rochester. Please visit us 
online and subscribe to our channel for more videos.